A New York University student allegedly set fire to a fellow classmate who fell asleep in his dorm last summer, a horrific incident that went unreported by the college for two months.
Jaime Castano, 20, was charged with first-degree assault and reckless endangerment at Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday for attacking a 19-year-old woman while she was asleep and recording the incident as she awoke to flames consuming the mattress, New York Daily News reported. Although the incident occurred in August, NYU officials failed to report the allegations to police until mid-October.
On Aug. 23, Castano set fire to an intoxicated female who had fallen asleep in his dorm at around 11 p.m. Then he took a cell phone video showing the victim "asleep in his bed with flames on her clothing while [HE] sang, then showed her waking up and trying to put out the flames while he recorded it," according to court papers.
The following morning, the confused victim woke up to find holes and burn marks on her bed and blankets, burns on her clothes, and painful burns on her body. But it wasn't until she came across Castano's video on the photo-messaging application Snapchat, that she realized what had caused the blaze, according to NBC News.
The unidentified teenager suffered "painful burns and scarring to her torso," it was alleged in a criminal complaint seen by the New York Daily News.
On Wednesday, NYU admitted that it had made a mistake in failing to report the accusations immediately, but stated that its decision had stemmed from its practice to give deference to a victim's wishes to involve police.
"In retrospect, at least when the facts became clear, this case clearly should have been reported to the police, not withstanding the reluctance of the victim," university spokesman John Beckman said.
Castano was expelled in September after the university pursued a disciplinary case. "The university, from the outset, took this case very seriously," Beckman said, adding, "From the very beginning, the university spoke with the victim about involving the police."
Meanwhile, the 20-year-old is being held on $50,000 bond or $25,000 cash bail at his arraignment. He is due back in court on Friday to learn if he has been indicted, CBS New York reported.
